It is already known to apply optical time-domain reflectometry, OTDR, to determine the quality of an optical transmission link. The OTDR principle requires an optical pulse to be transmitted over the fiber under test, and a resulting reflected signal is measured in a time-resolved way.
Similarly, optical frequency-domain reflectometry, OFDR, is already known, too.
Disadvantageously, both OTDR and OFDR techniques require to use a transmission pulse having a comparatively high optical power, which especially in the context of wavelength division multiplex, WDM, systems results in the blocking of at least one wavelength channel for transmission of user data. In optical access systems based on a WDM PON (passive optical network) configuration, each customer fiber can only be accessed via one particular wavelength. Thus, the application of conventional OTDR and OFDR techniques interrupts or at least impedes a regular data transmission over an optical transmission link, especially in WDM PON structures. Moreover, OFDR techniques necessitate rather complex measurement setups to measure an optical phase of a reflected signal with sufficient precision.